The present invention relates to apparatus and to a method for automatically printing, reading and otherwise processing information-carrying documents, and relates particularly to apparatus having a mechanically dividable, circular document passageway for reading and otherwise processing ATB-tickets (Automated Ticket/Boardingpass documents) at airport gates, called gate readers, and a method which involves the use of such apparatus.
Tickets which include data inserted on an information carrier are used in several connections, e.g. in connection with airport passenger traffic, train traffic and bus traffic facilities, among others. Other possible areas of use include hotel and conference activities, ski-lifts, multi-story carparks, various kinds of subscriber services, and other forms of activity which require the automatic processing of the data that has been entered on an information carrier or record medium. The tickets, or passes, concerned may have mutually different configurations, and may consist of one or more mutually joined parts which are intended to be separated from one another in one of the ticket processing stages. The first of the data concerned is entered on the ticket when the ticket is issued to the ticket owner. Data may be thereafter removed, inserted and read. The information carrier may have different forms and may, e.g., consist of magnetic strips, bar codes, colour markings or holograms.
Normally, a large number of tickets are handled over a short period of time, for instance when checking-in at an airport, and consequently it is necessary that the ticket handling apparatus is able to handle the ticket irrespective of which end of the ticket is inserted into the apparatus first, and irrespective of which side of the ticket faces upwards when inserting said ticket into said apparatus. Furthermore, it shall also be possible to read the data or information on the tickets even though the data is entered onto the information carrier on different occasions and with the aid of different equipment. The discharge of the ticket from the apparatus, and also the discharge of those ticket parts which may have been separated from the main body of the ticket, shall be independent of the manner in which the ticket was inserted. The apparatus concerned must be very reliable in operation and must also be able to process the ticket quickly and also to handle the ticket without requiring complicated instructions in the process. In order to enable such apparatus to be moved readily between different places of use, such apparatus must also have small dimensions and be light in weight. It must also be possible to readily dismantle and service the apparatus in the event of a malfunction, and the apparatus must also be able to process and handle tickets which while being worn or acceptably defective in other respects are nevertheless authentic and correctly made out.
The present invention satisfies all of these requirements and desiderata in a manner not previously known and also circumvents those problem which have occurred with apparatus of the kind used hitherto.
A number of ticket handling apparatus of the aforementioned kind are known to the art. One such apparatus is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat No. 4,788,419. This apparatus includes a cylindrical feed drum which is rotatable in one direction and which includes a simple ticket switching or guiding device. A similar apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,518 includes a reversible drum with fixed ticket switching devices. Document dividers are known from GB 1,198,718, although this known document divider is not used together with a circular, ticket-feed passageway. U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,688, DE 2,115,171 and JP 60-247 794 teach feed drums which can rotate in one single direction and which coact with very simple ticket switching devices. EP 0 132 393 teaches a ticket-handling apparatus which includes a reversible drum. None of the aforementioned prior publications, however, teach technical solutions which lie close to the solutions afforded by the subject matter defined in the Claims of this application.